Their findings reveal that Australians have among the highest levels of household debt and underinsurance in the world, a quarter of Aussie households couldn’t raise $3,000 in an emergency and the average super balance at retirement is far from adequate yet less than 20% of Australians are actively building their wealth for retirement.

“The next generation aren't on track to do any better,” Pedersen-McKinnon said.

Pedersen-McKinnon also said she is very concerned about the slow roll-out of formal financial literacy programmes amongst school kids, which is both complete and unbiased.

“My big concern is that financial institutions are scrambling to fill the void… You can bet these bank-sponsored programs leave out the fact that NO bank offers the best of every product – most don’t even offer the best of two!” she said.